


Tim Drake Character Study

by bisexualoftheblade



Category: Batman - All Media Types, The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Anxiety, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Emotional Manipulation, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:34:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27076567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualoftheblade/pseuds/bisexualoftheblade
Summary: A character study of Tim Drake written using the entities from the Magnus Archives.
Relationships: Past Tim Drake/Conner Kent
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19
Collections: The GUG Cinematic Universe





	Tim Drake Character Study

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crystalinastar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalinastar/gifts).



> This character study is specifically regarding the Tim Drake seen in the GUG AU, which has a few canon divergences. The only ones relevant for this piece are that he was forcibly outed as bisexual by Vicki Vale and that he used to be in an emotionally and verbally abusive relationship with Conner Kent. Besides these two pieces, which are only small references in this character study, this is canon Tim Drake!

**The Buried:**

The Buried can manifest as the feeling of being at the center of everything and it all pushing down on you constantly. In canon, we constantly see Tim push himself to the limit, whether in regards to spending months in physical training to become Robin, to how he has spent much of his life pushing down various emotions so that he can be the perfect leader. One of the most prominent examples of this in canon is after Bruce’s death. Tim spends months searching for Bruce, ignoring how his family treats him, ignoring his grief, and ignoring his pain. And while this is never truly discussed in canon, we can only assume that Tim would have spent this period of time feeling as though the whole word is bearing down on him, crushing him into submission.

* * *

**The Corruption:**

While many only think of the Corruption as its typical manifestation of physical rot, it can also present in the form of all-encompassing love, abusive relationships, and deteriorating boundaries.  One of the most common character traits we see Tim express in canon is his utter devotion to people and causes, whether that is his belief that Bruce is alive, his devotion to his parents, and his relationship with Conner. I am going to address each of these points separately, because they each have so much to unpack!!

So the first event I am going to address is Tim’s mindset during the time he was searching for Bruce. During this time, Tim’s belief became all-consuming, to the point that he pushed away those he cared about, he lost things like the position of Robin, a position that was his entire life. This is a prime example of how an utter devotion to a person or ideal can destroy you. Because yes, it is important to have heroes in your life. After all, having someone to look up to is what can give you the motivation to become better. But heroes can be dangerous. It is so easy for someone you look up to to mislead you or manipulate you, especially when your devotion to them is all-encompassing.

The second event I am going to address is Tim’s devotion to his parents. Even though Tim’s parents are incredibly neglectful, frequently leaving him alone for incredibly long periods of time, he is still shown to adore them. One way we can see this is in how Tim so easily agrees to his parents’ demands that he give up his position as Robin, even though it is something that brings him joy. I see this as one of the more subtle iterations of the Corruption: not knowing the place you are in is rotten until it is far too late. It’s spending your entire life eating the food your parents provide you, and not realizing that it has been slowly poisoning you the entire time. It’s feeling safe and secure, and having the rug ripped out from under you when you finally realize what’s been going on.

And the final event I will address is our change from canon: Tim’s former relationship with Conner Kent. To me however, this is the most  _ hopeful  _ iteration of the Corruption, because this is the relationship Tim got out of. It’s the relationship where he saw the signs, and he left. But just because Tim left this relationship doesn’t mean the rot didn’t take hold. Because even the smallest dose of exposure to the Corruption leaves it’s marks, whether physical or mental, and it can take an entire lifetime to recover. 

* * *

**The Dark:**

I feel as though this one might be one of the most obvious ways in which Tim is connected to one of the Entities. The most common way the Dark manifests is in a fear of the things that lurk in the dark, the things you can’t see but that you  _ know _ are there. And Tim has spent a large portion of his life living in the dark, whether working as a vigilante or sneaking out to photograph Batman, he has spent years not only living in the dark, but becoming one with it, using the dark as a shield. Because if the monsters can’t see you, then you can escape for a little bit longer.

* * *

**The Desolation:**

A lot of the Entities in the Magnus Archives are misunderstood, but I think the way the Desolation is often interpreted is one of the most annoying misinterpretations. Because yes, the most common way the Desolation manifests is unthinking or cruel destruction, but it is also pain and loss. And so much of Tim’s life is shaped by pain and loss, not just his own, but others as well. I think the most poignant way in which the pain of others shapes Tim’s life is the death of Dick Grayson’s parents. After all, it was this event that led Tim to discovering the identities of Batman and Robin, and that discovery is what would eventually culminate in the vast majority of Tim’s personal pain and loss. Because so much of the loss and he experienced is directly related to his time as a vigilante, which was all tied to the loss and pain Dick Grayson experienced, there is no way to discuss Tim Drake without discussing the pain and loss he goes through and how that destroys a psyche.

* * *

**The End:**

The End truly is one of the most passive of the Entities, for it a person’s connection to and fear of death. I don’t think Tim is scared of death. If anything, Tim is willing to die, at least as long as he saves someone first. At least, he isn’t scared in a way that would be able to create a true link to an entity. But that link can also come from a person’s constant connection to death. And Tim is not only constantly surrounded by death in his work as a vigilante, but seeing his friends and family die. His connection to the End is watching as everyone around him seems to die, and he has to come to grips with the idea that there is no truly stopping the end of all things, at least, not without the horrifying mental drain that immortality takes.

* * *

**The Flesh:**

Tim’s connection to the Flesh is admittedly one of the loosest connections he has to the various entities, but it’s still an important one. One of the most common ways the Flesh manifests, besides it’s newer form of the fear of animals, is the fear of your body being changed or mutilated against your will. And yes we can assume that Ra’s al Ghul’s role in the removal of Tim’s spleen not only physically but mentally scarred Tim, but there is very little discussion of how that would have impacted him for years to come. How long must he have spent terrified of any medical procedure, terrified that once again someone would change his body. Our bodies are one of the few things we can truly hope to control, but when someone interferes in that control, it can utterly destroy you.

* * *

**The Hunt:**

Now I know what you’re going to say, the Hunt is about being chased and prey, but there is another facet: the affinity for tracking and the chase. Tim has spent his entire life in the chase. It began on those Gotham rooftops, dancing across them and hunting down the perfect shot, the best framing. And it’s the thrill of the chase that leads you to try to become a hero, chasing down that last adrenaline high, that fleeting moment of finally being good enough, of actually saving someone, but it never seems to come. The chase is never over, not as long as there are people left to save, not as long as he still has to prove himself.

* * *

**The Lonely:**

Oh boy I have so many thoughts on this poor boy and the Lonely. Honestly, there are a few entities I think it is easiest to relate Tim to, and the Lonely is one of those. So the Lonely is one of the most obvious in its manifestations: it’s the feeling of being disconnected, of being cut off from those you love, and being left alone. And Tim is unique. I think a lot of us have seen that comic panel of him declaring “I’m not like Batman, I have friends”, but does he? Sure, there are points in time where he does have a team around him, but so many of his arcs feature him being left alone, of the people he loves abandoning him. His most famous storylines are Conner and Bart dying, Bruce dying, his parents leaving him, Robin being taken away, Steph dying. And truly, what better person to align with the Lonely than a boy who spent his entire childhood alone, and never truly recovered?

* * *

**The Slaughter:**

I can already sense people coming to yell at me for aligning Tim Drake with an entity whose most common manifestation is senseless violence, but that’s not the manifestation I am aligning him with. You see, the Slaughter also manifests as not knowing where or when the pain will next appear, simply that it  _ will _ appear. And yes, there is the obvious interpretation of physical pain. After all, in vigilantism there will always be new pain, new injuries. But there is also the interpretation of psychological pain, of Tim knowing that everyone he loves has hurt him before, so it’s only a matter of time until they hurt him again. It’s throwing yourself into the adrenaline of fights every night to dull the memories, hoping that the bruises and cuts can dull the pain of the voices in his head reminding him that everyone is going to leave him soon, so why bother trying to be friends?

* * *

**The Spiral:**

The Spiral is deception and lying, of lying to yourself, and your mind lying to you. And Tim is aligned with the Spiral in two different ways. Tim is the manifestation of lying to yourself, and that of lying to others. In regards to lying to others the manifestation is simple, every part of having a secret identity requires constant lying. In regards to lying to himself, well, Tim has done that on two separate occasions, the first in which he was unaware, and the second in which others claimed he was. For you see, a common hallmark of victims in abusive relationships is not seeing the red flags, and a partner manipulating them into ignoring them. But there is also a scenario in which everyone was determined Tim was lying to himself where he wasn’t: the aftermath of Bruce’s death. And this time period actually fulfills two separate facets of the Spiral: lying to yourself, and slowly feeling more and more like you can’t trust your own mind, like everything around you is falling to pieces. 

* * *

**The Stranger:**

The Stranger is a double-edged sword for Tim. Because you see, Tim knows what it is like to be replaced, what it’s like to be so sure of your place in the world, only to look away for a split moment to see everything has changed. To be told that everything will be the same, that nothing is changing, and that he will never return to find some stranger in his place. But Tim also knows the other side of the coin. He knows what it’s like to be welcomed into a place wholeheartedly, to have a place for you already carved out, only to discover with sinking horror that you are the stranger sleeping in someone else’s bed. Tim has spent his entire life knowing that he replaced Dick, that he replaced Jason, that it’s only a matter of time until Damian replaces him. He knows he is nothing more than a toy soldier trying so hard to pretend that they are real, but that everyone knows is fake.

* * *

**The Vast:**

Now the Vast is another Entity that has multiple interpretations. The one that most people remember is the idea of falling for eternity, of being dropped into the vast openness with no ending in sight. But I think it’s the other manifestation of the Vast that holds a lot more potential: the concept of your own insignificance of your place in the universe, of looking at everyone else, and realizing that you are nothing. And I think that concept holds a lot of potency for those who want to be heroes. Because if your one goal in life is to be the hero, to save everyone you can, to be remembered, then your greatest fear will be failing. It’s failing to save people, and then watching as the history books erase you, because what good is a hero who can’t save people?

* * *

**The Web:**

The Web is the fear of manipulation and being controlled, of someone else taking advantage of you and controlling your actions. I think normally this fear would come from someone taking advantage of you without your knowledge, although it has a flip side. Yes someone can take from you without your consent, but they can also take the love you freely give and warp it into something twisted and rotten. They can take your offer of help, and take it further than you could have ever imagined. Tim doesn’t fear someone else manipulating him, he fears the people who claim to love him realizing that he would give them his help even without their love, and then ripping that thread away for good.

* * *

**The Eye:**

There is a reason I saved the Eye for last, and that’s because it is the Entity that holds the most potential in a discussion of Tim Drake’s character. The Eye is the fear of being watched, exposed, followed, of having secrets known. But it is also the drive to know and understand, even if you know that your discoveries might destroy you. In this, the Eye is truly a double-edged sword for Tim. Because the question is, would the Eye be able to ruin Tim through fear, or would Tim be an avatar of the Eye, using these fears to ruin others? Because this entity holds so much potential, I will break up this section into the two ways the Eye manifests. 

The first way the Eye manifests for Tim is the fear of being watched and exposed, of having your deepest secrets ripped away from you. Tim has a lot of experience with this. After all, a rich kid would have spent his entire life being watched by the paparazzi, having every waking moment photographed, every little mistake immortalized for eternity. But it is worse than that for Tim, because for so many LGBT+ teens, your greatest fear is being outed against your will, and Tim had to watch as Vicki Vale outed him to the entire world. And yes, he was able to recover from this, but that trauma never truly goes away. But there is also the fear of failing on patrol. Of not realizing that someone is following him, and getting hurt because of it. Of failing at the most basic part of his job: not getting caught. After all, isn’t your greatest fear not seeing the person behind you waiting to stab you in the back?

The Eye also has another, more powerful, manifestation for Tim. One of the few things everyone knows about Tim Drake is how he became Red Robin: spending years of his life tracking Batman and Robin across Gotham. And Tim knows this is dangerous, not just because he could have been hurt, but because who knows how people would respond to knowing that he knows their identities? But Tim doesn’t care, the knowledge is more important. It’s what he has spent his entire life chasing, because if people think he is smart enough, then he is useful to them. And he knows that being useful isn’t love, but sometimes it feels like the closest thing he can get, so he continues on. 


End file.
